


One More Cup of Coffee

by plinys



Category: Rush (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coffee, F/F, FemTrope Bingo, Femslash February, Same Universe as The Best Soy Latte
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-08
Updated: 2014-02-08
Packaged: 2018-01-11 14:35:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1174235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What was it about coffee shops magically appearing whenever you’ve had a bad day?  Or Suzy officially hates every one, and intends to rant to her dear friend James, but finds that he is not working and instead comes face to face with a very different barista who smiles at her and makes her awful day just a little bit better.</p>
<p>(set in the same universe as "the best soy latte that you've ever had and me," in which there are coffee shops and hipsters and everything is great.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	One More Cup of Coffee

**Author's Note:**

> So woah on my [femtrope bingo card](http://femtropebingo.tumblr.com/) there was a section that said: coffee shop au, and you guys know how I feel about coffee shop aus.
> 
> Plus I just love the "Best Soy Latte" universe too much to leave it alone for long.

What was it about coffee shops magically appearing whenever you’ve had a bad day?

There’s something almost mystical about them, she muses as she crosses the street to a certain coffee shop that she had stopped a few times in the past, though mostly because she knew the latest addition to the team of baristas.

Then again, the mystical nature of coffee shops and their relevance could probably be boiled down to two simple facts.

The first of which was that America’s loved their coffee in an almost religious manner.

And the second was that there just so happened to be a coffee shop on every single corner.

Though this coffee shop held far more to it than what met the eye from the simple sign on the outside that read: _“Congratulations: You made it out of bed.”_

Suzy let out a little laugh at the sign, before pushing open the door to the coffee shop that chimed at once announcing her arrival to the nearly empty shop.

“James isn’t in yet,” the barista calls from behind the counter before Suzy can even get her bearings.

Suzy had been hoping that James would have been working.

Even since he hooked up with that barista of his, something that Suzy feels vaguely responsible for since she was the one that helped him make his date a success, he had been working there as well. It was all terribly sappy and awful. She could only take so much of watching the hipster and pseudo-hipster make eyes at each other across the counter.

 The only reason Suzy even really came in is that she tended to be able to swindle James into giving her a free drink, because he owed her or some nonsense like that. She didn’t mind swinging by when she had some work to do, if free coffee was on the table.

However, she had never actually bothered to try and learn his work schedule.

Which was why on that awful morning after pulling an all-nighter, she wasn’t exactly surprised when she walked into a coffee shop to find that James was not the one behind the counter.

At least, it wasn’t his ass of a boyfriend.

Instead of either of those two men, there was a young woman behind the counter that looked far too chipper for seven in the morning as she moved about, humming along to a song that Suzy was unfamiliar with that played over the radio.

“Is he usually in on,” she pauses, pulling out her phone to check the date, “Wednesdays?”

“Yes,” the barista, whose name tag read _Marlene_ , replies, arching a quizzical eyebrow in her direction, “you are his friend aren’t you? I think I’ve seen you in the shop before-“

“I am,” Suzy cuts her off.

The barista makes a noise of agreement, “he should be in soon. You’re welcome to wait.”

“Thanks,” Suzy replied, taking a seat in one of the plush chairs and taking a look around the empty coffee shop.

For some reason her eyes as quickly drawn back to the barista, Marlene who stands behind the counter with an iPod in hand flipping through a variety of songs some which seem familiar to Suzy and others that she had never heard of before. None of them play for very long, before the barista huffs and switches it. Finally though she settles on a song that Suzy has never heard of, closing her eyes Marlene beings to hum along to soft lyrics of a song that was playing around the café, “been another sad summer song,” she sings in a soft lit as the part that Suzy can only guess to be the chorus plays.

Though when she opens her eyes and meets Suzy’s who had been watching her closely neither woman look away for a moment, there’s a challenge in that gaze, one that has Suzy locked in place for a moment before finally looking away, eyes darting down to the phone in her class.

“So, what was then, long night or bad morning,” Marlene asks while leaning across the counter.

“Sort of both,” Suzy replies after a moment, now daring to look back up, that same look that challenges her is on the other woman’s features. “It’s a long story.”

“We have time,” she offers with a shrug.

Suzy smiles at the openness in the barista’s tone. It’s not often that she has somebody to talk to about her day and while she is certain that this Marlene doesn’t really care, she supposes that it is better than bottling it up or angrily ranting to her twitter followers.

“I just,” she makes a noise of frustration, “the Associated Students meeting last night ran late because nobody can agree on the new proposal for the Food Bank, and then I have a paper due for my Feminist Studies class that I need to turn in in,” she turns to check the time on her phone, “about an hour. Which I might have put off until last night.”

“I know the feeling,” Marlene offers, “I’m always putting off writing my thesis drafts.”

“If it were just that things wouldn’t even be that bad. I’m good at bullshitting papers.” Great was probably the more accurate term for it, Suzy had become a master at writing papers last minute over the years. “Just that as I was finally finished it this morning, I got a call from the head of the Ski Club who needed me to work on some paperwork for our trip next weekend and,” she let out a soft sigh, “I’m exhausted and ready for this day to be over.”

“Even though it’s barely begun?”

“Honestly, feels like it is still yesterday.”

Marlene laughs at that, nodding along. “So Ski Club?”

Suzy takes that as an invitation to continue with her rant about the Ski Club and people’s general incompetence, the club’s president’s annoying girlfriend who seems to think she’s the reincarnate of Cleopatra, and the fact that global warming is melting all the snow before they can actually hit the slopes. Unlike other people who tend to get this look on their face when she’s talking, one where they’ve clearly stopped looking, Marlene seems to actually be actively listening, making comments when appropriate.

It’s oddly comforting and Suzy feels more relaxed than she has felt in years.

That is until their conversation is interrupted by the chirp of a cellphone signally an incoming text message.

Marlene quickly says, “sorry,” before grabbing her phone off the counter.

“It’s fine.

The barista let out a groan as she reads the message, eyes locked on her phone screen, “It’s James. He’s going to be pretty late. I wouldn’t wait around.”

“That bad,” Suzy asks, taking in her cross expression.

“Let’s just say I know a lot more about my coworker’s sex lives that I would care too,” Marlene answers.

Suzy knows the feels all too well and pulls at face at it. “In that case, I should probably go. I’ve got class and…” Though even as she speaks she felts a reluctance to go, if it wasn’t for having a class and an essay to turn in she would have been happy to stay and chat, there’s  just something so welcoming about Marlene.

“Allow me to at least make you something before you leave, you look like you could use a drink,” Marlene offers.

“I most certainly could. Though something stronger than coffee would probably work a bit better.”

“Alas, triple shot of espresso is the best I can do,” Marlene teases, “some other time though?”

“Some other time.”

When Suzy pulls out her wallet and heads up to the counter to pay Marlene fans her off quickly, “This one is on the house.”

Soon enough a togo cup of coffee is stuffed into her hand, “Thanks.”

“Good luck with your paper,” Marlene says encouragingly as a goodbye, and Suzy calls another “thanks,” over her shoulder as she slips out of the coffee shop feeling much better than she had felt when she walked in it earlier that morning.

The coffee is delicious when she drinks it, but she doesn’t have too much time to think about it as she hurries across the campus to her class room.

Thankfully she’s somehow managed to make it to her class on time.

And when Suzy finally takes a look at the side of her coffee cup, intending to see what flavor the barista had added into the coffee to make in so delectable. However, rather than seeing the name of the drink, or even the weird code barista’s used to distinguish between the drinks, scrawled on the side of the cup was something completely different.

A nine digit phone number.

Later she texts a simple message: _I believe you said something about getting drinks?_


End file.
